Picasso Makes it Work

Project Runway had its finale this month. Several friends have banded together in our strange obsession with the show. Someone cooks dinner, someone cooks dessert and we sit around and eat as we watch skinny models. We even pick ponies who we think are going to win (Atlee won this time - see picture for his winnings). I know my fascination with the show is the pure creative and constructive talent it features. Not only do you have to be able to design a look, you have to sew it in a day or two. My sewing skills are legendary (and I don't mean the good kind) and I struggle to understand how people actually sew something well enough to wear it to an event other than a Halloween party. For the past two years, I have pushed myself by sewing Halloween costumes for myself in the hopes of improving. This year I see 4 days to go and no "make it worked"idness within me. I suppose I will throw together some last ditch effort. Luckily, with my obsession with Halloween, I have quite the history of costumes to choose from. T. Gunn is in the Belk's house here in Bham on November 8. Maybe we can entertain ourselves between seasons by stalking him.

Ginger Snaps Back

Although this happened in August, I'm just now getting around to posting about this. It's my blog, I can do what I want. And I definitely want to let you guys know the best new ingredient in your kitchen. Ginger Snaps! Our last Supper Club was hosted at my place and we used our awesome screened in porch as a Dining Room (honestly that is the case 90% of the time). The theme was Ginger Snaps Back. Although I had Ginger Snaps as a theme ingredient in mind, some people read it as ginger and that was perfectly acceptable. Atlee and Amanda made some ginger ale that makes Buffalo rock seem meek. In their typical brilliant fashion, they compensated by pouring in coconut rum. yummmmm. Yvonne whipped together shrimp coated in ginger snaps for an appetizer.Bill and Dawn made a ginger onion tart as a side dish which insured we would not have anything green contaminating our plate. As for me, I took some advice from Pat Zurasky and tried the Saubraten. This involved filling the house with the smell of vinegar for two days as the meat marinated then adding crushed gingersnaps to the crockpot after hours of cooking for a gravy. The result was good but it will be a year or two before I got through all that again. Of course, the best part of the evening was dining in our awesome screened in deck. It was the main reason we bought the house and can i say "Worth it!"? I would be remiss if I didn't point out the amazing dessert. Are you guys ready for your mind to be blown? What is better than banana pudding? "Nothing!" you exclaim. What if...just what if...it had ginger snaps instead of vanilla wafers? HEAVEN!

Next Stop - Olympics!

I've noticed in many Olympic events, there is always great discussion on how young the athlete was when they began a sport. In that case, Auntie Karen has organized it so that Allison and Ruby will be gold medal swimmers by signing them up for an infant swim class. I've thought long and hard about the best sports to get your child into. Ideally, you want a sport that doesn't require a ridiculous time commitment, lots of travel, painful watching on the part of the parents or too much special equipment. Judging by my coworkers, baseball and soccer are vey demanding. Swimming is fine... until a swim meet. I remember three things about being on a swim team as a child. The pool is ridiculously cold early in the morning, the swim meets are painfully long and Cricket and Kelly Zurasky were the only thing making it fun. They did this by having cool games like grease the watermelon and throw it in the pool and make all the kids get it.

It was with some trepidation that I threw some swim diapers on Ruby and proceeded to Gold's gym for the lesson. After stripping down to a bikini (hey, a girl has to have show some benefit from throwing up for nine months) I took Ruby into the pool where we say her auntie and Allison. My mom served as the personal Paparazzi. The teacher had us all sit on the side of the pool with the infants. We sang a song to some generic tune I don't know the real some for. It basically went "This is the way we wash our feet, wash our feet, wash our feet....etc etc" Once the kids have had water thrown on them we ease into the pool and begin their lesson. Kicking is followed by reaching out for a toy. I start to see how this will actually turn into swimming. All the children covet Allison's toy which is a Hip hop a pottumus instead of the standard duck or ball.

By the end, the kids are exhausted and the parents had a good workout too. I'm looking forward to the rest of the lessons even though the instructor frowned when I threw a greased watermelon into the pool...